I LOVE our ULTIMATE team!

so this was the best day ever with the frisbee girls.First it's been raining all weekend so we had one hell of a fun practice! Layouts? Unnecessary bids anyone?! OH YES! we sure did! :) It was such a fun practice playing in the rain and doing heaps of bids and layouts! After we went and found the largest puddle on the field and just started to slide through it. We got very wet and grassy! Here's a photo to give ya'll a little taste of what we looked like. Some of the freshmen girls ran back to their dorm and took a photo so it's only a few of the members of the team but this is why I love these girls!
so yeah... meet Claire, Ellie (Pepe), Melissa, Sanna, Tiffany, and Andrea (Oops):-) What lovely girls. Also tonight we went "Blading". But what it is I can not tell. Just know it was a lot of fun! :-)

saving the world? and soulmates

first of all I need to say how much I *heart* Bad Religion and Flogging Molly and Ben Folds. I have pretty much been constantly listening to all three this past week. Love Love LOVE them! All great music.

Anyway here are some things from the past few days.

Wednesday after a depressing video in Biodiversity telling us how we are overpopulating the world and will kill it by doing so Leah and I chatted about how we could save the world. Leah told me she would do her part by being a repulsive human being so as to not have any children, thus bringing down the population. I mentioned maybe we should get rid of plastic surgeons because then we don't have to worry so much about beautiful people who want to procreate. hmmm good theory huh? The best part of this discussion... on how to save the world... was Leah's quote "Saving the world one dateless friday night at a time". :-) Believe me it was really funny at the time. Kayla also chipped in some insight to this theory when I discussed it with her later. According to her we won't overpopulate the world because of natural disasters. She said it kind of like when the world or God decides that there's too many people on the earth, they do a little population regulation and send out a natural disaster to get rid of some people (ie the Tsunami and the hurricanes) This might not be a good thing to joke about...but really... it's a fairly decent idea. Population control via natural disasters?

Another thing. Kayla and I have determined that we are soulmates. Academic soulmates anyway. We sat around one night doing homework and chatting a bit and we both realized that we have pretty much the exact same attitude and outlook on life when it comes to academics. We're both have B averages, we sometimes feel like idiots around smart people who like to use large words, and we both had a bit of a difficult time trying to get our point or arguments across to people. I don't know if I had ever met anyone on the Luther campus that had these same thoughts. So many people here say they're such "bad students" or are like me when it comes to academics but really they're not. Kayla...she's for real. This probably seems like such a random thing to talk about but it was quite enlightening and just good to hear.

It's parents weekend and well my parents are not coming. It was however they're anniversary yesterday and I did not tell them Happy Anniversary or anything... no card either. I'm a bad daughter. So since my parents aren't coming I get to hang out with everyone else's parents! Ma Pa Schaffmeyer came last night and brought heaps of "hippie food" as they like to call it. It was nice to see them again! YAY! Well it's off to go see Britta's birthday presents and start the day of studying/hanging with people's folks.!

cheers!
em

the grinell tourney

well this is a couple days late but i had to write anyway....

The frisbee tournament at Grinell this past weekend was FANTASTIC! we took a team of... 16? girls and had a BLAST! <---- check out the photo! Most of our team consisted of new players but they, and we still did amazing and we even got compliments from other teams! Overall I had such a blast that it's hard for me to explain in words. Not only did I LOVE playing in a tournament again with the Luther Women's Team 'Glad Bestandig' and that I got to be playing with my friends from last year, but I got to meet heaps of new girls too! I now have like 10 new friends and people I have to say "hi" to while walking around campus. I had a blast with these girls. Everyone wanted to play and was excited to play, we had fun car rides -- dance parties in all, great conversations, good times camping and...although our team NEVER goes to the party... this time the WHOLE TEAM went! Most of the men's team went too so we could interact not only with our other Luther team but with all the teams! So good!

Basically I can not explain in any other way than by saying that this weekend was AMAZING FUN! I'm pretty tired and can't really think of much to say either except that i loved playing frisbee this weekend and it was good!

That is all.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAYLA!

So today is Kayla's 22nd birthday. YAY! :-) If you don't know Kayla she is one of my roomies and my new friend. I did not know Kayla until this year and I feel like I missed out on her awesomeness! Anyway exciting times for Kayla's birthday! We got up heaps early this morning and ate breakfast together (everyone) and had mimossa's. Mmmm champagne and juice! Tonight Marissa is cooking Lasagna for the house and some other friends. It should be great! 1. I *HEART* Lasagna, and 2. someone else cooking a nice hot meal for me?! EXCELLENT! Love to Maris! Anyway ...

Besides birthday fun it's been a weird week. I can't think straight. I am having a complete mental block over my senior paper! Eek! There are very mixed feelings I have about it. I thought I had this great topic but now I'm thinking...meh, it's not so great, maybe I want to change it. And I though I had a topic to change it to but now I'm thinking...shoot, it's not a solid topic!

My Mind is Blank! -- not a good thing when i am supposed to have an outline by tomorrow afternoon and well now I'm meeting with my professor any how because I told him via email that I'm rethinking my topic! Eek! I'm very excited to write this paper but I want it to be GOOD! So good that it rocks my face, and my advisor's face off! Not only that but anybody else's face who might read it! It's scary thinking about leaving school after this year and getting a job but then I also think of the great opportunities I could have and find if i would just look. I sat in Abnormal Psych yesterday thinking about how cool it would be to get an internship with a clinical psychologist. My friend Sarah is doing one starting soon. Our Abnormal professor is also a clinical psychologist and so it makes the class very interesting and that's who Sarah is doing her internship with. I"m thinking maybe I'll do an internship over J Term even though i really want to be here. I have to start dealing with trying new things. Clearly I did fine trying a new thing for five months: Australia! Duh! Oooh and about Australia...so cool to get an email today about having a get together with other people that went to Australia for a semester to talk about experiences and about our programs. Other fun about Aus... was watching "Jeff Corwin Experience" on Animal Planet Tuesday and so cool to watch him in Aus, in Adelaide and then KI. It was quite exciting to sit there and point at the tv and say "i've been there! I rode on that ferry! I saw that site! I LIVED there!" SO GOOD!

alright it's already a quarter past 10 and I haven't done anything I was supposed to yet. As in study and get a check cut for the frisbee tourney this weekend! (that's going to be HEAPS good and I'm sure I'll write ALL about it when I get home!) Love to all!

Hokay, so...Here's the Earth....

alright so Mel was getting all up in my face about needing a new post, so to procrastinate a little bit from doing homework I'm doing so.

First let me tell you all how EXCITED I am that movie production of RENT is coming to theatres November 23!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This afternoon I watched movie previews online for quite awhile and not only did i get excited for Corpse Bride, MirrorMask, Harry Potter, a new Pride and Prejudice and The Chronicles of Narnia, but... I got to see a preview for RENT! I can't explain how much i love this production! The play is so awesome and so inspiring and just gives me an awesome feeling. I was literally bouncing off the walls over the movie this afternoon. Why? well not only is this an awesome production but... get this... the movie cast.... is the original broadway cast (minus the girl who played Mimi --Daphne Rubin-Vega what are you up to?!) Still very pumped though. They are all amazing actors and singers and I can't wait to see it again and be able to watch it over and over and over. I'm hoping it's awesome and that I don't bring too high of expectations. I want to enjoy this movie. I have a feeling I will not be disappointed though. Out of my excitement I called my sister and we're planning on going the day it comes out! I still can not express very well at the moment how much i love RENT. If I figure it out I'll let you all know. But praise and thanks to Jonathan Larson. What a fucking genius!

On to other topics... So to go along with the title of this blog... if you don't know the ebaum's world cartoon about the End of the world..here's a blurb I would like to share:

"Hokay, so here's the Earth. Chillin'. Dame you might say that's a pretty sweet Earth. ROUND! Hanyway... Ruling out the ice caps melting, meteors become crash into us, the ozone leaving and the sun exploding, we are definitely going to blow ourselves up...hokay so..."

So, I don't really think we are going to blow ourselves up, but rather we are just going to destroy the Earth in general with our materialistic life styles. I'm taking a class on Biodiversity this semester here at Luther and for my first journal entry that I had to write responding to what we've been talking about in class i wrote three pages about deforestation. Deforestation. It's a big deal I feel. My deal is that I can't believe how much we still do it. It's going to ruin us if we keep cutting down forests and rainforests! This may just seem like simple logic, or complete common sense but i guess I just don't understand why we still do it. If we keep cutting down for paper, excuse me but what happened to recyling? And if it's to make way for more people because our population is growing, i'm thinking maybe we try to keep the # of children to a minimum, but I really don't want to be the one to tell you to only have one kid and that you can't have the family you've always wanted. Anyway I was also thinking about all the rainforest that gets destroyed and cleared away. This makes me soooo sad. Our professor mentioned in class about how many things we can get from the rainforest. Ailments for diseases and such, but if we keep destroying the rainforest and don't use it resourcefully then we're missing out. Clearly! About being resourceful... When I was in Australia, Ann Marie and I took a horseback ride through a forest that wasn't an actual rainforest, it was kind of low on the scale of what constitutes an actual rainforest but there was still heaps to learn. Our tour guide Glenn was very informative and taught us all about the plants that were in the forest and how resourceful we could be and how useful the plants and things were. Nature and the environment can really be interesting! Glenn lived, I think in a rainforest for years when he was adopted by Aboriginees and they taught him all they knew about the rainforest and its resources. The best thing was at the end of the ride he showed us how this plant when broken up and dipped in water could be used as soap! how awesome is that?! Anyway what I'm getting at again is that resourcefulness is good. I'm thinking we need to be a little bit more of that and a little less of the materialistic. Pretty much it's just a matter of us taking care of the environment and not using so much of it's resources. My question now is... can we do it? Are people willing to make that sacrifice? Clearly i feel like some people do already, other cultures around the world live off the land. Can the rest of us do so?

MISSING: Adelaide!

just a quick one to say ... I Miss You Adelaide! I miss you heaps!

i miss the pubs,
i miss the Cooper's
i miss the people...sha'll i make a list? (I don't think I can... it would take up heaps of space!)
i miss the parks,
i miss the swans and the grace emily
i miss you O'Connell and late night food,
i miss the balconies,
i miss the chats in Shannon's room,
i miss the chats and movies in Mel and Jess'
i miss the one pitcher that turned into six
i miss the frisbee fun and traveling,
i miss it all... i miss all of you....

"and here you know the world could turn or crash and burn and you would never know it! going where the air is clear there's better beer in Adelaide..."

I *heart* my room mates!

so the first week of classes are over. Ok not the first full week of classes, only the first three days of classes! anyway things look like they will be good. I have already slacked a bit on doing some of my readings but that's ok I will survive. Today's plans... well I made a list of homework and things I need to get done but nothing has gotten done yet. Britta and I ate breakfast for about an hour this morning and watched ER, and two eps of Sex in the City. It was all happy and not to sound like a downer I have this terrible feeling that the show Sex in the City is just fucking with me right now and that it will get sad again sooner or later. Have this sneaky feeling Carrie and Aidan will NOT get married (oh shit, I'm obsessed! make it stop!...oh but it's so fun to watch!)

On top of that I *HEART* my room mates! They are all so fun and so crazy. Las night all but two of us went out last night. Krista and I hung around for the night and watched a movie. Good times. Anyway the girls have wanted to get a chance to talk to Shannon on the phone. So they got lucky last night since he was around. He rang and Marissa, Kayla, Britta and Krista all got the chance to say hello to an Aussie. (am still hoping it wasn't very awkward for shannon to talk to four girls he has never met). Anyway it was all pretty funny especially since Kayla was a bit drunk at the time too. The girls are just fantastic and I love living with them! This is going to be a great year!

i'm off now... Britta calls and so does some frisbee socializing i think...

love to all~

em